Six Strong Benefits of Supporting Your Local Author Community in Your Library

SELF-e is Connecting Indie Books, Libraries and Readers

Libraries are driving a new era of ebook discovery for indie authors and small presses. SELF-e helps develop robust local writing communities and keeps libraries at the center of the indie book movement.

Is SELF-e Right for Me?

Self-publishing is a valid and important option for many authors. Whether aiming to produce a bestseller, distribute information or preserve a personal history, each author is contributing to the community in a significant way and deserves access to patrons across the globe.

“Over 50 percent of all library users go on to purchase ebooks by an author they were introduced to in the library.”Library Journal’s Patron Profiles: Understanding the behavior and preferences of U.S. public library users

SELF-e and Pressbooks Public are viable resources for authors at any point in their writing journey, from conception to publication. These tools, made available through library systems worldwide, allow authors to produce professional-quality ebooks and distribute them to patrons locally and internationally through their public library.

With our state collections, our national SELF-e Select genre-based collections, our SELF-e Ambassador program and our ongoing contests, there are many ways for authors to get recognized in their local communities and beyond. Find out more about whether the SELF-e program is right for you by checking out our FAQs. Or, if you're ready to submit your book, click here to get started.

“The number one challenge any author has is building an audience. Once they have an audience, they have an opportunity to grow their work professionally. Librarians can be a powerful marketing force for emerging authors, especially if they can promote the books without fear of success. The SELF-e approach to curation combined with simultaneous user-access will encourage books to be discovered and even go viral.”

“Libraries are all about readers and writers connecting. Since so many of my new readers discover my books via their local libraries, it’s vital that all my books, whether traditionally published or self-published, be easily accessible to library patrons. This program helps librarians to better serve readers and authors to grow their audience, creating a perfect synergy of benefit to all book-lovers.”

CJ Lyons, Best-selling self-published author2 million plus books sold

Engage Your Local Writing Community

Is your library struggling to make local self-published authors’ ebooks available to your patrons? With SELF-e and Pressbooks, you can support your local author community from the first words they type to worldwide circulation, all while feeling confident in Library Journal’s ability to identify the best indie books through their trusted curation process.

“SELF-e helps the library by giving [indie authors] a path to publication and wider discovery within their own community and state.”Laurie Kincer, Readers’ Advisory Specialist at Cuyahoga County Public Library

Through the newly curated SELF-e Select Collections, your library can make all of the very best SELF-e ebooks, submitted from around the globe, available to your patrons.

Whether you are interested in expanding your local reach or increasing the diversity of your ebook offerings, SELF-e is here to help. With Pressbooks and SELF-e, libraries have the ability to become full-service writing centers for their local author communities. For more information on how the SELF-e program can work for your public library or community college, check out our FAQs.

"As self-publishing expands, offering increasing numbers of people the opportunity to tell their unique stories, libraries around the country are faced with a challenge: How do they evaluate this new influx of material? What self-published titles should they add to their collections? How do they accommodate local authors who want to make their books available to their community? SELF-e solves these problems, offering quality titles expertly curated by Library Journal, accessible in an elegant interface that is patron-friendly."

Kiera Parrott, Book Reviews DirectorLibrary Journal and School Library Journal

“We are very excited to be partnering with Library Journal and BiblioBoard to showcase emerging self-published authors at the Library. Through SELF-e, we are able to foster a community of local authorship and to provide our patrons with access to exciting new literary voices. We are also thrilled to add Pressbooks to our resources for our active local author community. It empowers our users to create a professional, polished final product, and it fits in beautifully with our use of the SELF-e service.”

Catherine Royalty, AcquisitionsLos Angeles Public Library

SELF-e for Small Presses

The SSP program helps small presses and libraries work together to promote great indie books. Through this program, small presses can help new authors gain readers from all over their state, or even nationally, for free. Through SSP, librarians will be able to help authors promote their books, leading to a local readership that can help them go viral.

"Small presses offer some of the most innovative works around today, but discovery of those titles is often difficult for librarians, given their limited time and resources. At the same time, small presses find it hard to get attention for their books in the cacophony that is the publishing world today. SELF-e promotes the findability of small press works as well as self-published titles, helping librarians diversify the kinds of books offered to patrons, which is a win for everyone."Henrietta Verma, Library Journal Reviews Editor

To start submitting books on behalf of your authors, click here. If you are interested in submitting more than 10 books, or for more information on SSP, please contact us to learn more.

"Before learning about SELF-e, breaking into the public library scene didn't seem possible. SELF-e provides everything authors need for a successful promotion by expanding their audience and improving their discoverability in a cost-effective manner. For example, several of our clients are looking to publish again in the future, so readers who have discovered our authors using SELF-e will be more inclined to search for more information about our authors, which will likely lead to sales of books outside of SELF-e selected titles. We often remind our authors that "you get what you give," and we strongly believe that they will reap the benefits of contributing their work to this innovative program."

Wisdom House Books

"I truly appreciate the important work this program is doing on behalf of small presses, independent authors, and readers everywhere. By expanding the digital capability of libraries to include great independent authors, SELF-e is bringing a world of discovery to readers."